Rent increase

Velcro_Hotdog

Hello

Wondered if someone could help me out. My landlord is popping over this evening to get a new tenancy agreement signed as ours expired about 3 months ago. When he rang last week to arrange a convenient night to come over he mentioned that the rent would be increasing. Are there any guide line he should follow when calculating what the new monthly payment should be or can he charge what he likes?

Trying to work out before hand what I'm likely to expect

TIA

clutton_2

its all up for negotiation. I would download a few examples from rightmove so that you have some evidence of local rents you can show him if you think he wants too much

may_fair

As clutton says, do some research on current rents for comparable properties. Bear in mind that if you don't agree a new rent, and the tenancy continues as periodic, then LL can serve a s.13 notice to increase the rent. If you disagreed with it, you'd have to apply to a rent assessment committee (who'd decide whether the increase was fair); if you didn't contest it, the rent would go up as per the notice.

camptownraces

Assuming that you are in England and Wales, and that your tenancy is an AST, then you must now be on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy. This arises if you stay on after the AST fixed term expired.

If you don't like the look of the new tenancy agreement the landlord is proposing you don't have to sign it. If you are a "good" tenant you could very likely negotiate different terms, especially rent level. (No landlord in his right mind would want a month's void if he could avoid it - it's equivalent to 8% less rent over a year, plus the expenses of letting).

If you don't agree to his new terms, the Landlord would have to give you two months notice that he intended to seek possession through the courts.

Velcro_Hotdog

Thanks folks

I have looked at other properties in the area and found that we are paying over the odds for a similar property by around £50 PM based on the average price on the three houses within a mile of my house that are availabe to rent. I love the house we are in and have no plans move. I just wondered if there was some guide lines along the lines of rent increases cannot be more than 6% or RPI that year that kind of thing.

My LL and his wife are really nice people, I'm sure I'm worrying about nothing.

Thanks again

jjlandlord

Velcro_Hotdog wrote: »

I just wondered if there was some guide lines along the lines of rent increases cannot be more than 6% or RPI that year that kind of thing.

If the increase is negotiated through a new tenancy agreement, its amount is free.
If the rent is increased through a section 13 notice, the tenant can appeal it if it is disproportionate compared to the local market.